Manifolding account-keeping apparatus.



G. F. HUDNALLL MANIFOLDING ACCOUNT KEEPING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED APBHSO, 1909.

Patentd. June 7, 1910.

Won/n mnnsw a GRAHAM c0. Pumaumowwm WASHINGTON. n. c,

CHARLES F. HUDNALL, OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.

IVIANIFOLDING ACCOUNT-KEEPING APPARATUS.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, CI-IARLns F. HUDNALL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Richmond, in the county of Henrico and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Manifolding Account-Keeping Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to manifolding apparatus, and has reference more particularly to an appliance for use in counting rooms and bookkeeping departments generally.

It is designed and adapted for use in conjunction with a loose-leaf binder, and also with especially arranged loose leaves both of my invention and both forming subject-matter of separate applications for Letters Patent filed simultaneously herewith.

The present invention has among its objects that of materially assisting bookkeepers and accountants in practicing systems of bookkeeping; also the production of an appliance by agency whereof loose leaf books may be kept with greater ease, accuracy and precision than heretofore; also the production of an invention whereby one entry may be immediately recorded on a page from a book of original entry, posted to a page from a ledger, and also entered upon a movable strip which latter may serve the purposes of a trial balance when used in connection with a double entry system.

The present invention also has for an obj ect a novel arrangement and combination of parts in a manifolding apparatus as will be hereinafter particularly described and pointed out in the claims following.

In the accompanying drawings which form part of this application and whereon corresponding numerals indicate like parts in the several views: Figure 1 represents my invention in perspective, equipped with a page from a book of original entry, also a ledger page, and also a trial-balance slip. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view through the pages above referred to, and the manifolding ribbons. Fig. 3 is also a sectional view taken centrally through the apparatus at right angles to Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view in plan of one ofthe two manifolding-ribbon-tension devices. Fig. 5

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 30, 1909.

Patented June '7, 1.910.

Serial No. 493,085.

is a vertical central section through one of the ribbon reels, and, Fig. 6 is a vertical central section through one of the two reels for carrying a trial-balance slip.

Reference being had to the drawings and numerals thereon, 1 indicates the body or desk portion of the invention, which may be of any approved shape and configuration, but in the present instance is substantially square and provided with legs 2, 2, 2, 2 to elevate the structure slightly above a stand, table, or desk upon which it may be used. At one side, preferably the right, extending from end to end is a raised guide rail 3 for purposes that will later appear, while in the corresponding position at the opposite side desk 1 is similarly crossed by a metallic cleat 4 which, however, could be omitted without materially aflecting the use and operation.

Secured to opposite ends of desk 1 are corresponding double brackets 5, each having parallel arms 6, 6 by preference of spring material such as brass, and carrying flanged rollers 7 8 respectively, the former serving as a supply roll and the latter as a take up roll for a record strip 9, as best shown by Fig. 3. The said rolls 7 and 8 are mounted respectively upon. screw pins 10, 10, having enlarged knurled heads 11, these pins are threaded at one end in one arm 6, and pass loosely through the other arm 6 of each pair so that a turn of said pins in one direction serves to place the rolls under tension between their spring arms 6, 6, or relieves them of such tension by a turn of the screw in the opposite direction, as occasion demands.

Adjacent to the feed roll 7 the surface of desk 1 is chamfered, as best shown at 12, Fig. 3, and almost wholly covered by a surface plate 13 beneath which the record strip 9 is delivered to the desk, which, as clearly shown, it crosses to the take-up roll 8. Near the upper edge of desk 1, the latter is crossed transversely by a narrow plate 14: which may be of any non-yielding material 'such as a strip of suitable metal, but obviously such strip may be dispensed with, if the surface of desk 1 is itself sufiiciently hard to resist the action of a pencil point.

At each side of desk 1, in a vertical plane coincident with that of the plate 14, and bracketed beneath in a manner similar to that of the rolls 7 and 8, are lower ribbon reels 15, 15 carrying opposite ends of a lower manifolding ribbon 16. Likewise be tween corresponding upper ribbon-reels 17, 17 is an upper duplicating copying or manifolding ribbon 18 also clearly shown by Fig. 1. All of said reels 15 and 17 are provided with toothed flanges 19 and 20, respectively, the better to facilitate turning them, and are supported upon screw mandrels 21, each having a knurled head 22 and a similarly knurled tension nut 23 for binding them between their respective spring supports.

'lhcsaid lower reels 15 are each carried by a pair of downwardly projecting arms 24, 2 1 of spring material, while the said upper reels 1'? are each carried by a frame or bifurcated lever 25, also of spring material, pivotally connected at its lower end to the brackets aforesaid 26. From the brackets 26 said arms 2 1 project, and each of said frames or levers 25 are provided near the lower pivotal end with a spring 2'7 for engaging a fixed segmental rack 28 rising from the bracket 26 to retain the reel and lever in any predetermined position.

As thus described, it will be apparent that sheets of paper or writing material of any desired form of ruling, or plain, may be introduced into the foregoing apparatus between the appropriate copyingribbons 1G and 18, and by means of a. single writing, in proper alinement, the matter written may be instantly manifolded; but while such general uses are always available, the present apparatus was designed primarily to receive and cooperate with loose leaves of novel form from account-keeping books, such as illustrated by the accompanying drawings wherein 29 indicates one page from an original book of entry,30 a similar ledger page, and 9 the trial balance or rec ord strip before mentioned.

By reference to Fig. 1 it will be noted that loose leaves 29 and 30 are ruled transversely and have as novel characteristics a heavy ,vertical divisional line 31 at a point approximating the center of the sheets for the purpose of separating debit from credit entries; and also that adjacent to said vertical line 31 upon opposite sides thereof are corresponding debit and credit amount columns 32, 32. Spaces are also provided upon each side of these vertical lines 31 and 32 for the usual entries upon one side or the other according to the nature of the transaction; moreover, said lines are spaced a uniform distance -from edges of the leaves 29, 30 and are maintained in the relative position shown by agency of the guide rail 3.

The operation of this invention in its last named adaptation, namely, that of a loose leaf double entry system of account keeping may be briefly outlined as follows: Presuming that the record sheet 9 occupies the position indicated in Fig. 1 where it is crossed by the manifolding ribbon 16, also that a personal account ledger-sheet 30 is next introduced above said ribbon 16 and below the uppermost or duplicating manifolding ribbon 18 of a width approximately corresponding with that of the space between the transverse lines upon said sheet; a sheet 29 from the book of original entry, whether journal, cash or sales book, is next placed above the last named ribbon, the vertical division line 31 of both sheets being brought into absolute alinement by engagement of the leaves 29, 30 with guide rail 3. Since all writing is to be done above the plate ll in vertical alinement with the ribbons 16 and 18, the pages 29, 30 are now advanced along the line of rail 3 until the page-line of entries registers with said ribbons, the position of which latter may be observed at all times upon each side of the said sheets. Transactions thus noted in due course upon the sheet of original entry 29,.are simultaneously posted by nlanifolding through the duplicating ribbon 18 to the proper .side of ledger sheet 30, and the amounts appearing in the corresponding figure-column are by the same operation manifolded through sheet 30 to record strip 9. This strip 9is advanced after each entry by a partial turn of the take-up roll 8, and since in a double en try system there is necessarily a creditentry for each debit entry or vice versa, it follows in the course of each complete transaction that there must appear upon the. opposite side of the division line 31 an entry corresponding with that already referred to incl uding the amounts in the figure column 32 which as before are manifolded through to the opposite side of the record strip 9. The loose leaves or sheets such as 29, 30, are now removed and restored in alphabetical arrangement to the appropriate loose leaf books of original entry, or a loose-leaf ledger, whereupon atrial balance may be taken upon any day or at any time in the day for purposes of verification by merely footing up the double column of amount figures appearing upon the record strip 9, as aforesaid. To this end it will be noted, that the amount columns 32 and 32 upon sheets 29 and 30, are always in the position shown by Fig. 1 with relation to the record or trial balance strip 9, being maintained in such position by agency of guide-rail 3, and the approximately central position of said amount columns upon the sheets, and upon opposite sides of their vertical Cl1"lS1OI1 lines 31. And it will be particularly noted that all looseleaves such as 29 and 30 inaddition to ap propriate vertical rulings and columns for the vertical alinement of dates, items, amounts, etc., are ruled transversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width; and moreover, that the manifolding. ribbons 1a and 18, of a width corresponding with that of said individual writing spaces,

project beyond such spaces at each side of the loose-leaves to facilitate registration of said spaces and ribbons, even though the latter are almost entirely concealed from view beneath the former. By preference these ribbons project upon both sides of the leaves which they separate from the next writing surface below, but obviously if projected upon one side only a satisfactory registration would result when used in conjunction with the raised guide rail 3 arranged as shown, at right angles to said ribbons.

Having thus described my invention in one desirabe form of construction, and mode of operation, I do not propose to limit myself to the particular form or mode of operation set forth, but on the contrary contemplate various changes in the combina tion, arrangement and proportion of parts, the materials employed and the general mode of accomplishing new and useful results without in the least departing from the spirit of the invention.

I now claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In an account keeping apparatus the combination with a desk, of loose-leaves each ruled transversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width, and a manifolding ribbon crossing transversely between said leaves said ribbon corresponding in width with the individual writing spaces aforesaid beyond which it projects at one side of the leaves to facilitate registration of the said spaces and ribbon.

2. In an account. keeping apparatus the combination with a desk, of loose-leaves each ruled transversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width, a guide for said leaves, and a manifolding ribbon crossing transversely between said leaves said ribbon corresponding in width with the individual writing spaces aforesaid beyond which it projects at one side of the leaves to facilitate registration of the said spaces and ribbon.

3. In an account keeping apparatus the combination with a desk, of loose-leaves each ruled transversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width, a record strip underlying said leaves, and manifolding ribbons crossing said desktransversely between said leaves and record-strip said ribbons corresponding in width with the individual writing spaces aforesaid beyond which they project at one side of the leaves to facilitate registration of the said spaces and ribbons.

4. In an account keeping apparatus the combination with a desk, of loose-leaves each ruled transversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width, a manifolding ribbon crossing transversely between said leaves said ribbon corresponding in width with the individual writing spaces aforesaid beyond which it projects at one side of the leaves, and reels at opposite sides of the desk for carrying said ribbon.

5. In an account keeping apparatus the combination with a desk, of loose-leaves each ruled transversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width, a manifolding ribbon crossing transversely between said leaves said ribbon corresponding in width with the individual writing spaces aforesaid beyond which it projects at one side of the leaves, and reels at opposite sides of the desk for carrying said ribbon mounted in vertically movable frames.

6. In an account keeping apparatus the combination with a desk, of loose'leaves each ruled transversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width, a manifolding ribbon crossing transversely between said leaves and corresponding in width with the said individual writing spaces beyond which it projects at one side of the leaves, and ribbon-carrying reels at opposite sides of the desk mounted in pivotally supported frames.

7 In an account keeping apparatus the combination with a desk, of loose-leaves each ruled transversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width, a manifolding ribbon crossing transversely between said leaves said ribbon corresponding in width with the individual writing spaces beyond which it projects at one side of the leaves, ribbon carrying reels at opposite sides of the desk, a record-strip underlying said leaves, a second manifolding ribbon crossing above said strip in the same vertical plane with the ribbon aforesaid, and rolls at opposite ends of the desk for carrying the record strip.

8. In an account keeping apparatus the combination with a desk, of loose leaves each ruled transversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width, a manifolding ribbon crossing the desk transversely beneath the uppermost of said leaves, another manifolding ribbon crossing in the same vertical plane beneath the second of said leaves, reels for carrying both of said ribbons arranged in cooperating pairs, a record-strip underlying all of said leaves crossing the desk at right angles to the ribbons aforesaid, and rolls mounted upon opposite ends of the desk for carrying the recordstrip.

9. In an account keeping apparatus the combination with a desk, of loose-leaves each ruled transversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width, a fixed guide for one edge of said leaves, an underlying record-strip crossing said desk from end to end, manifolding ribbons interposed between said leaves and between said leaves and strip respectively such ribbons corresponding in width with said individual writing spaces beyond which they project at one side of the leaves, and a chamfered channel at the front ed Q6 01 the desk for introduction of the record-strip.

10. In an account keeping apparatus the combination with a desk, of loose-leaves each ruled transversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width and having a vertical division line intermediate of their sides, a record-strip underlying said leaves and crossing the desk from end to end, manifolding ribbons interposed between each of said leaves and record-strip said ribbons corresponding in width with the individual writing spaces beyond which they project at one side of the leaves, and a guide upon said desk adapted to position said division line of each looseleaf centrally over the recordstrip.

11. In an account keeping apparatus the combination with a desk, of loose-leaves each ruled t 'ansversely to provide intervening writing spaces of uniform width and having a centrally arranged double amount column, a record-strip underlying said leaves and crossing the desk from end to end, manifolding ribbons interposed between each of said leaves and record-strip said ribbons correspending in width with the individual writing spaces beyond which they project at one side of the leaves, and means for positioning said amount columns directly over the record-strip.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature, in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES F. HUDNALL.

IVitnesses J. E. Houston, J. I). Hanvin. 

